American comedian and composer Oscar Levant once said, “There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” That statement resounds with American ingenuity. Afterall, nobody thought peanut butter and chocolate would go well together until Henry Reese combined the two.
But there’s one combo that nobody saw coming: Manchester’s gloomy-but-danceable the Smiths with New Jersey’s devil-locked innovators of horror punk, the Misfits. Introducing Los Angeles’ the Mismiths.
Like many other strokes of genius, the Mismiths started as a joke between two old friends.
“It was me and my drummer from my other band,” said singer Steven Gorrissey. “We were coming up with terrible mash-up names just trying to make each other laugh. He said, ‘Mismiths’ and I thought it was so funny! So it stuck in my head …”
Fast forward several months later when, while messing around at band practice, Gorrissey jumped on the mic and began singing like British pop star Morrissey.
“But no one laughed,” Gorrissey said. “They were like, ‘Yo, we didn’t know you could do that!’ and I didn’t know I could do that!”
Then he remembered the name Mismiths, and it all clicked. Gorrissey called upon a friend who could sing like the Misfits’ first singer, Danzig, and the band booked their first show on Oct. 28, 2015. The Mismiths began as a side gig, something the friends could get together to play a couple of times a year.
However, the band gained popularity in the L.A. scene faster than they could say, “How soon is now?”
“All of a sudden we were booking shows in July and August. Like, what the hell’s going on?” Gorrissey said.
That was around 2019, and the band hasn’t slowed down since. In 2021 they released their debut full-length, Every Night Is Like Halloween. In September they released Dead to Me.P. a five-track EP of originals with titles like, “You’re Dead to Me and I Don’t Shag the Dead,” and “Stop Asking For Saturday Night.”
“We only do Danzig-era Misfits,” Gorrissey said. “And at almost every show someone yells out ‘Saturday Night’ [a later Misfits song with their second vocalist, Michael Graves]. Our bass player was writing a song in the vein of ‘Saturday Night,’ and I said, ‘No, what if we sang ‘Stop asking for Saturday Night?’”
By combining the riffs of the Smiths’ Johnny Marr and the Misfits’ Doyle Von Frankenstein with the vocals of Morrissey and Dangzig, the Mismiths create a unique—and hilarious—sound. Adding to the sweet hybrid moments is the band’s stage show with each member in full skeletal corpse paint in true Misfits style. Band members playfully satirize their inspirations with banter between songs before going into true-to-form covers and original tunes like “The Show Has Been Cancelled” and “Fake it Till You Fake it.”
But don’t for a second think the Mismiths are just a joke, because that would be a miserable lie. Give their recordings a listen and it’s clear these guys are not only fans but also incredibly dedicated musicians who break through the static age to absolutely nail two sounds that shouldn’t mix yet somehow do.
I know, because I’m a convert. While I love the Misfits, I’ve never been a Smiths fan and even less of a Morrissey fan. However, it only took one Mismiths show for me to start singing along to “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” the next time I heard it on the radio. They got peanut butter in my chocolate and heaven knows I’m miserable now.
Just kidding. But at least I’m not the only one.
“That happens to us a lot,” Gorrissey said. “Danzig is one of the best punk rockers as far as writing and singing. Then you dive into Morrissey’s lyrics and he’s one of the best lyricists of all time. Whether you like them [as people] or you don’t, you gotta respect that.”
The Mismiths perform at 8:30pm Saturday, Nov. 29, at the Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany, ivyroom.com. Also performing: The Dancing Horses (Echo & The Bunnymen) and Almost Heaven (Just Like Heaven plays the Cure and ’80s classics).
